The present invention is directed to a restraint for a flexible drive shaft gearbox that is located on an auxiliary planting unit.
Flexible rotatable drive shafts have been used in a variety of applications to transmit rotational force from one location to another. Traditionally, the flexible rotatable drive shaft has a male coupling for engaging a female coupling on a gearbox. When the male coupling engages the female coupling the flexible rotatable drive shaft is in a driving relationship with the gearbox. The gearbox is restrained from rotation by mounting bolts securing the gearbox to a structure.
Flexible rotatable drive shafts have been proposed for use on agricultural seeding machines, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 718,664, and 4,779,471. The flexible drive shafts in these examples extend from a ground driven wheel to a seed meter. The ground driven wheel is coupled to a gearbox for driving the flexible drive shaft. The flexible drive shaft in turn drives a seed meter gearbox which drives the seed meter.
It is an object of the present invention to prove a simple gearbox restrain for preventing the rotation of a flexible drive shaft gearbox that is mounted to a seeding machine.
A flexible drive shaft is used to drive a seed meter of a seeding machine. The seeding machine is provided with a seed meter gearbox. The seed meter gearbox has a flexible rotatable drive shaft receiving portion and a gear receiving portion. The gear receiving portion is provided with a gearbox output defining a gearbox drive axis. The gearbox output is drivingly coupled to the seed meter for driving the seed meter. The flexible rotatable drive shaft receiving portion extends outwardly from the gear receiving portion for receiving the drive ferrule of the flexible rotatable drive shaft. The gearbox restrain extends outwardly from the seeding machine and engages the flexible rotatable drive shaft receiving portion. The gearbox restrain comprises two legs that are parallel to the gearbox drive axis. The flexible rotatable drive shaft receiving portion is sandwiched between the two legs preventing the rotation of the gearbox.